Paint marking sticks (also denoted herein as “marking paint sticks” or “paint sticks” for brevity) are used in locating operations to create paint marks corresponding with locations of interest, such as the locations of underground pipes, power lines, or other utilities or hidden or buried objects. Paint marks deployed by these paint sticks are intended to correspond to the position of a buried utility or other buried asset as seen at the ground surface. Paint marks may also provide information about the utility line or other buried asset (e.g., color coding of marks to show utility type, writing out or abbreviating utility type or reference numbers in paint, etc.). Paint sticks and associated marks, as well as the systems and methods using them, normally rely on a user re-finding the marks at some time after they have been painted and then trying to interpret the meaning of the mark (e.g., a paint mark may be deployed by a first user, and then at a later date a second user may go to the approximate location and find the mark again for use as a reference point, such as before digging up a street or other surface.
This approach can be inefficient and may suffer from inaccuracies and human error when making each mark and/or when re-finding and interpreting each mark's meaning. Further, this approach relies on the mark being accurately placed and/or accurately reflecting utility details initially, which may or may not be correct. As a result, current solutions known in the art for improving accuracy, efficiency, and/or reliability leave room for improvement. Furthermore, existing solutions tend to focus solely on paint stick devices and ignore other types of marking devices such as flags or whiskers.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved devices, systems, and methods to address the above described as well as other problems.